Seau Steps In

David Scott takes a look at the Burton Brothers managing to get a (quick) interview with holdout Patriots receiver Deion Branch, which was shown on CBS4 last night.

Mike Reiss has a good piece on Rodney Harrison, as the Patriots safety continues to work towards getting more contact and eventually game action in his comeback. Harrison also speaks about former and current teammate Junior Seau and what he can bring to the Patriots. John Tomase also has a good article on Seau, as the veteran linebacker adjusts to his new team and begins the process of figuring what his role is going to be with the team. Paul Kenyon also looks at Seau as he took the practice field for the Patriots and lined up at middle linebacker on the first team defense. Chris Kennedy has more on Harrison as he battles his way back on the field. Rich Garvin looks at Seau taking the field with the Patriots, ponders his role, and his taking of jersey number 55. Michael Parente says it won’t be a surprise if Seau plays this weekend for the Patriots.

Alan Greenberg reports on second year tackle Nick Kaczur coming off the PUP list and hitting the practice field for the first time this camp. Dan Pires looks at rookie Ryan O’Callaghan stepping up to possible take a starting role with the Patriots. Christopher Price looks at what Seau could mean to the Patriots. Tomase has a report on the Deion Branch interview mentioned by David Scott above. Tom E Curran gives a short report on the interview as well. Albert Breer tells us why #55 is so important to the USC football program. Tomase also as a bit on Harrison as the safety allows reporters to play the guessing game as to when he’ll be playing in games.

Reiss’ notebook has Nick Kaczur returning to practice for the first time this camp, and revealing that he battled a shoulder injury for much of the last part of the 2005 season. He also has Bill Belichick poking a little fun at himself. Tomase’s notebook also featured Kaczur’s return to the field. Kenyon’s notebook follows a similar pattern. Kennedy’s notebook says that the trade of Brandon Gorin was a signal that some of the Patriots young linemen are ready to step up into bigger roles. Garvin’s notebook looks at the revolving door at tackle with players leaving and coming.

Sox Still Sinking

The Red Sox fell to their sixth straight loss last night as they lost to the Angels 4-3 out in California. Kyle Snyder was decent as the starter, giving up three runs in five innings, but rookie Kason Gabbard gave up the winning run in the 7th inning and took the loss.

Gordon Edes has the depressing game story on the loss. Jeff Horrigan looks at the Red Sox being unable to stop the bleeding. Steven Krasner says different coast…same results for the slumping Sox. David Heuschkel notes that not even a pre-game pep talk from manager Terry Francona could help the slumping Sox.

Gerry Callahan informs us that not only is there no hope for this season, there isn’t any for the future either. He says the Red Sox reluctance to spend money will likely continue and that fans should just adopt the “Wait till next year” slogan each year like they used to. Dan Shaughnessy rips Manny Ramirez for his latest hamstring strain, saying we’re all sure Manny is faking it, this time to protest a bad call by the official scorer over the weekend. Shaughnessy also rips the “fanboys and sycophants” who always forgive Manny because he puts up big numbers. Well, duh. If it’s not ok to be a “fanboy” of a future Hall of Fame player, then why the hell do we follow sports at all? Tony Massarotti devotes a whole column to telling us that the Javy Lopez acquisition has been a disaster. No kidding Sherlock. Meanwhile, the Yankees made the greatest trade in baseball history by getting Bobby Abreu.

Horrigan reports on Manny‘s hamstring and his absence from the lineup last night. Krasner has more on Manny in his Inside the game report. Kevin Gray notes that as bad as things are going with the the Red Sox, at least they’re not getting into fights with the manager as they are in Toronto. Massarotti looks at the job turned in by Kyle Snyder last night. Alex Speier says that the Red Sox are going to need to show a lot of character in order to turn things around.

John Connolly has a look at the uniforms being worn in tomorrow night’s Old Time Baseball game, the charity event organized by Steve Buckley.

The Bruins and young star Patrice Bergeron came to terms on a new five year contract yesterday, putting the final offseason piece of the puzzle in place for the Bruins. Fluto Shinzawa and Steve Conroy have the details. Mick Colageo says that this signing was the real statement of the summer from the Bruins about how things are changing in the way they do business. Bud Barth has more on the signing and what it means for the Bruins.

Larry Phung has Bob Cousy talking about the mentality of a point guard and his thoughts about the Celtics new duo at that position. Scott Souza looks at the offseason work Al Jefferson and the other young Celtics are putting in.